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Inequality: Obama’s newest bogeyman

President Obama is stressing a new theme: inequality. It is sad to see a President reduced to such a flim-flam this deep into his tenure in office.

Obama has nearly run out of scapegoats. Though he still blames President Bush, House Republicans, the rich, lobbyists, Wall Street and other bogeymen for his failures, the public is wising up. His approval ratings are low, and people don’t trust him.

But rather than work with Congress to achieve workable solutions to actual problems, Obama has invented another bogeyman — inequality. Like “Wall Street,” “the rich” and “business as usual in Washington,” this new bogeyman cannot defend itself. It gives him the opportunity to waste another year delivering useless speeches instead of doing the hard work of governing.

By announcing a new war on inequality, Obama hopes to distract from his own failures, which derive from his previous efforts to transfer wealth. It should be apparent by now that he hasn’t a clue how the economy actually works. He does not see that trying to confiscate the assets of the wealthy hurts the non-wealthy by discouraging investment and hiring. He actually believes that government confiscation and redistribution of wealth is the only way to help the poor and middle-class.

The big takeaway from last night’s State of the Union address is that we really are stuck with this economy until Obama leaves office.